The Political Quarterly, Vol. 92, No. 1, January–March 2021

Scotland’s Faltering Green Industrial Revolution

EWAN GIBBS

Abstract Renewable energy has long been central to SNP policy making and Scottish independence. During the 2014 referendum, green electricity generation was presented as a means for Scot- land to achieve ‘reindustrialisation’. Despite a world-leading transition in electricity supply, the Scottish government has struggled to develop renewables manufacturing. Scotland’s lar- gest offshore engineering company, BiFab, entered administration in 2020. This article explains the faltering of Scotland’s green industrial revolution. First, it assesses renewables’ privileged place in SNP perspectives, underlining its deep roots in North Sea oil and criti- cisms of British governments’ mismanagement of offshore opportunities. Second, the failure of market-led policy making to provide the anticipated industrial benefits from offshore wind developments is explained through the domineering role of foreign state-owned enter- prises and global supply chains in the UK’s renewables sector. The conclusion argues that older nationalist perspectives offer remedies, but these require a more active industrial policy that diverges from the current approach of the Scottish Government. Keywords: Scotland, energy, renewables, SNP, oil, wind

BiFab demonstrated two important differ- Introduction ences from the Thatcher era of market attri- THE SIGHT OF decaying workplaces and tion and an uncaring British government. The unmanned cranes are emblematic of Scot- social democratic instincts of Scotland’s newly land’s late twentieth century, not the nation’s established devolved polity was confirmed future. In the music video for the Pro- through the role of the Scottish Government claimers’ 1987 breakthrough single, ‘Letter in brokering a package that facilitated a take- from America’, the Reid twins saunter past over by new Canadian owners, D. F. Barnes. the chained up remains of Henry Robb’s Secondly, BiFab’s bailout also exemplified a shipyard in Leith, where their father had commitment to the renewables sector as a previously worked. ‘Letter from America’ source of industrial rejuvenation. Wind tur- narrates a now familiar tale that spans the bine fabrication was a crucial projection of Highland Clearances of the eighteenth and present and future prosperity in the late nineteenth centuries through to the industrial 2010s. Yet, in November 2020, the UK and clearances that were then ravaging Scot- Scottish governments issued a joint statement land’s Central Belt. Scottish manufacturing concluding that it was not possible for them workers once again faced the dislocation of to provide further financial support for BiFab redundancy when Burntisland Fabricators as the yards again faced being mothballed or (BiFab) was threatened with closure during closed owing to lack of work, questionably 2017. BiFab are an engineering firm based citing the restriction imposed by EU state aid not far up the east coast from Leith, at yards rules. BiFab entered administration less than in Methil and Burntisland. They have an two weeks later because it was unable to pro- additional yard at Arnish on the Isle of vide the financial guarantees required to fulfil Lewis. On this occasion, as at Henry Robb’s a contract for eight jackets—the foundations in 1983, workers occupied the yards to pro- of wind turbines—which would have pro- tect them from closure. Unlike the 1980s vided over 400 jobs. shipbuilders, the 2010s engineers were at Under devolution, Scotland has experi- least temporarily successful. enced a remarkable transformation in

© 2021 The Authors. The Political Quarterly published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Political Quarterly Publishing Co (PQPC) 57 This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. electricity generation, but the much antici- take ‘imagination, determination and consis- pated accompanying industrial benefits have tency’.1 It may also require public entrepre- not been delivered. This article assesses the neurial risk-taking and a commitment to development of the current position at BiFab more active state-led forms of industrial and what it reveals about hopes for renew- development which diverges from the SNP’s able energy in Scotland. Firstly, it overviews approach over the last thirteen years. energy’s significance in Scottish politics, emphasising how perceptions of British gov- ernment failures on electricity and oil have Nationalist energy perspectives shaped the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) Fiona Hyslop, Scotland’s Economy Secretary, approach since it came to power in 2007. prefaced the UK and Scottish governments’ Secondly, it reviews the progress of renew- joint statement on BiFab by explaining that ables industrial development that has fal- ‘We have left no stone unturned in our tered despite world-leading alterations in search for a solution to the challenges faced power generation. Major changes in Scottish by the business.’2 Hyslop summarised energy policy and institutional political econ- mounting frustrations with Scottish renew- omy are required to achieve greater rewards ables’ failure to live up to earlier expecta- from renewables. The conclusion reinforces tions. Then First Minister, Alex Salmond, older nationalist criticisms of the British mis- forcibly communicated these during the 2011 management of Scottish natural resources. Scottish parliamentary election campaign Yet, the same arguments can now be used when he now infamously declared that Scot- against the Scottish government’s commit- land could be the ‘Saudi Arabia of renewable ment to a market-led approach to achieving energy’. Boris Johnson recently shamelessly a greener economy. SNP politicians and acti- plagiarised Salmond’s bombastic phrasing vists have often cited Norway and other when he stated that, ‘As Saudi Arabia is to northern European social democracies as oil, the UK is to wind—a place of almost sources of inspiration, but they have so far limitless resource, but in the case of wind failed to develop an interventionist industrial without the carbon emissions and without policy in a sector they have designated as the damage to the environment.’ In the same central to Scotland’s future. speech, Johnson also appropriated the terms Oil is a key historical reference point for of one of his other main political opponents, understanding the politics of renewables. the Labour Party, by announcing support for The North Sea was formative for the cohort a ‘green industrial revolution’ in which Bri- of nationalists who led the SNP into govern- tain would reprise its rightful place at the ment for the first time in 2007. Alex Salmond helm of innovative technological develop- and his cabinet understood renewables ment.3 through the earlier experience of British state Johnson’s statement is a reminder that, mismanagement of oil’s industrial potential despite the tendency for Britain’s twentieth and fiscal benefits. However, offshore wind century to be conceptualised in terms of is a different entity to North Sea oil: it does national ‘decline’, ‘techno-nationalist’ aspira- not offer the prospect of instant enrichment tions also strongly conditioned the perspec- or labour-intensive extraction. Achieving tive of its elites. ‘Declinism’ was projected industrial modernisation through innovative through Britain’s failure to live up to its technologies is a challenge for a small nation nineteenth century reputation as the ‘work- with a devolved rather than independent shop of the world’. Energy played a central government. Yet, the abundance of renew- role in the postwar drive to achieve scientific able resources within Scotland, and expertise and technological leadership. The state in relevant engineering sectors—exemplified invested in a succession of much-maligned by BiFab’s long history in shipbuilding and uneconomic nuclear power station models oil rig manufacturing—mean that establish- during an ultimately futile search for export ing a significant renewables manufacturing markets. Only the privatisation of power presence is a surmountable goal. As BBC generation ultimately brought these adven- Scotland’s economics correspondent, Dou- tures to an end. Declinist narratives on the glas Fraser, observed though, that would

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The Political Quarterly, Vol. 92, No. 1 © 2021 The Authors. The Political Quarterly published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Political Quarterly Publishing Co (PQPC) left viewed the archaic British state as no Shipbuilders ‘work-in’ culmination during longer fit for purpose. Partisans of this thesis October 1972 exemplified this trend. Mara- —most prolifically and influentially Tom thon, the American oil rig manufacturer, Nairn and Perry Anderson—argued that Bri- took over John Brown’s shipyard in Clyde- tain lacked a culture of scientific research bank—the iconic home of the Queen Mary and was blighted by a pre-modern form of and the QE2. UK government officials and aristocratic capitalism and a pre-national trade unionists had heavily lobbied Mara- state.4 thon for investment. They wished to assure Nairn recognised that the discovery of pet- the Americans of Scotland’s engineering pro- roleum reserves in the northern reaches of wess and the cooperativeness of the work- the British North Sea, which had historically force, as well as underline the availability of been Scottish waters, was a major boost to public subsidies. Marathon was not an iso- prospects for Scottish independence. Oil held lated case. On the other side of Scotland’s out the potential of modernisation and Central Belt, Burntisland Shipbuilders also untold riches for a newly independent state, converted from shipbuilding to fabricating but also offered an enfeebled Britain another modules for oil rigs. The second Fife yard chance to limp on.5 The latter observation was built on top of the former site of Welles- was an astute assessment. Oil was firmly ley colliery in Methil. Earlier in the century, kept off the remit of a prospective Scottish Methil had been a major coal port, serving assembly by Conservative and then Labour Scandinavian, Baltic and other European governments during the tumultuous devolu- export markets before the First World War. tion debates of the 1970s. A Scottish Devel- Wellesley was Scotland’s second largest opment Agency was established in 1975 to colliery when it shut in 1967, having given ensure that the British state was seen to ser- work to over 2,500 men at peak employment vice the needs of the Scottish economy in a the decade before. It was a large, mod- distinctive manner, and to demonstrate that ernised and productive unit which was the fruits of oil wealth were visible across among the first pits in Britain to be equipped Scotland. By the late 1970s, oil was being with pit baths. Wellesley’s closure con- incrementally nationalised by the Labour tributed to high redundancy rates in Scot- government under the British National Oil land’s coal industry, which shed tens of Corporation (BNOC). The dying days of Jim thousands of jobs during the 1960s. One Callaghan’s cabinet were marked by a divi- effect of mounting pit closures under both sive debate over an oil fund. Tony Benn, the Conservative and Labour governments was Secretary of State for Energy, argued for disquiet towards the unitary state. Coal was ringfencing oil revenues and spending them a source of economic security, but now on special projects such as strategic infras- threatened by perceived mismanagement tructure investment. Benn made this case as under a distant centralised UK government the effects of deindustrialisation began to which was pursuing an uneconomic nuclear fray at the British economy and unemploy- programme. The SNP joined these protests ment rose. Conservative governments subse- and gained from them electorally. Notable quently used oil revenues for a quite breakthroughs came in former coalfields, different purpose. North Sea oil produced firstly polling second at the West Lothian huge tax boons in the first half of the 1980s, by-election in 1962, and then Winnie Ewing’s equal to approximately 10 per cent of all UK shock victory in Hamilton during 1967. fiscal revenues. Thatcher’s government used These developments anticipated the argu- oil royalties to fund workplace closures by ments made to even greater effect over paying for dole queues as well as tax cuts. North Sea oil. BNOC was privatised, confirming the domi- Nationalists and unionists alike viewed nation of private interests over a large new the North Sea as an opportunity to achieve a sector of the economy. transition to a modern industrial base. There Whilst debate has tended to focus on fiscal were important developments in this direc- trends, the North Sea also held out the tion. The Wood Group is the best-known potential for the rejuvenation of Scotland’s supply firm to have emerged from oil and older industries. The Upper Clyde gas developments. Another example is the

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© 2021 The Authors. The Political Quarterly published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Political Quarterly, Vol. 92, No. 1 Political Quarterly Publishing Co (PQPC) Weir Group’s advance to manufacturing governments, which prioritised the position pumps for oil and gas on a global scale. Jim of the exchequer over longer-term benefits. McColl, Scotland’s richest man, also took Harvie reserved the harshest criticisms for Clyde Blowers into supplying components the Thatcher government, which allowed oil for oil rigs from his East Kilbride factory. exports to boost the value of the pound, and Fabrication became a significant source of saw oil directly contribute to deindustrialisa- employment during the 1970s and 1980s. tion by pricing goods out of export markets. The yards at Clydebank and in Fife were Britain became a net importer of manufac- joined by the development of new opera- tured products and was relegated to export- tions in the Highlands. Nigg, Arderessier, ing raw materials instead of using oil to Lewis (which later became part of BiFab), pursue productive ends.6 and Machrihanish all experienced significant Harvie points to a more promising alterna- developments. In total, around 20,000 work- tive: Norway. A very different experience ers were employed in fabrication during the lies to the north of British waters. Norway is peak of the North Sea boom; fabrication pro- a small country that used its oil resources vided compensatory employment during a more constructively to enrich its population. period of manufacturing job losses. Impor- By combining joint ventures with public tant markers were set down by these devel- ownership through Statoil (now known as opments that have been crucial to the Equinor), Norway pursued a slower deple- pattern of renewable engineering develop- tion policy. Its oilfields were unionised and ments, but they were also seen as paltry. safer than Britain’s, whilst Statoil facilitated Scotland only enjoyed a fraction of the the development of a more comprehensive industrial benefits that North Sea oil could supply sector. Portions of oil revenues have have delivered. been invested in a sovereign wealth fund Oil appeared to offer an antidote to dein- which has since grown to gargantuan pro- dustrialisation. Developing a supply sector portions. Norway has enjoyed a longstand- was a logical objective. Skills developed in ing prominence in Scottish Nationalists’ older industries, such as those held by elec- energy imagination. During the early 1970s, tricians and engineers trained in now closing at the height of the ‘It’s Scotland’s Oil’ cam- coal mines and shipyards, could be repur- paign, the SNP leader, Billy Wolfe, went on posed in a forward-looking context. Whilst an exchange to Norway, which marked ‘a petroleum reserves might be temporary, the start to many comparisons that the SNP sector could outlast them and exports drew between that independent nation achieved by Scottish firms such as Weir enjoying the North Sea oil bonanza’.7 An demonstrate the basis this argument had in audit trail leads all the way to the Scottish industrial reality. However, the results were government’s Sustainable Growth Commis- relatively disappointing. North Sea oil failed sion, which presented a framework for an to provide the remedy to Scotland’s indus- independent Scottish economy in 2018. The trial contraction: as production expanded, Growth Commission marked a decisively multinationals fell back on trusted supply post-oil vision for Scotland’s fiscal position chains and British yards were not able to by advocating discounting revenues, but expand at a suitable rate to compete for con- retaining a commitment to an oil fund. In its tracts. In the eyes of nationalist critics, these pages, the UK government was condemned missed chances were the result of British for whittling away £328 billion of oil rev- government decision making which pro- enues, which contrasts with the Norwegians, moted short-term fiscal objectives over who set up a fund now worth £750 billion. developmental outcomes and Scotland’s dis- This ‘reflects the foresight of the Norwegian tinctive interests. Christopher Harvie bluntly Government in setting it up while oil rev- termed North Sea oil ‘fool’s gold’ in the title enues were particularly high rather than of an influential 1994 book. Harvie is an spending the windfall as happened in the industrial historian who went on to become UK’.8 an SNP MSP in 2003. His damning charge Two generations of Scottish nationalists sheet emphasises the folly of depletion poli- were economically defined by the oil experi- cies pursued by Labour and Conservative ence and it laid the foundations for their

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The Political Quarterly, Vol. 92, No. 1 © 2021 The Authors. The Political Quarterly published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Political Quarterly Publishing Co (PQPC) approach to renewables. British failures to Tellingly, Linklater singled out the unrelia- manage industrial modernisation effectively bility of wind farms in his case for more —even when presented with an opportunity nuclear power stations. Salmond’s support- linked to North Sea oil—incubated the ers slammed the British government’s reli- retention of a form of Anderson-Nairn per- ance on inefficient and dangerous power spective inside the SNP. The ‘It’s Scotland’s stations instead of investing in renewable Oil’ campaign gave these contentions a pop- technologies. Their objections were amplified ulist and social democratic character. In its by the recent publication of the McCrone memorable posters, the legitimate claims of report, a secret British government document unemployed manufacturing workers, from the mid-1970s that laid bare the poten- impoverished pensioners, and struggling tial North Sea oil had offered an indepen- single mothers, are juxtaposed to the asser- dent Scotland. tion that ‘England Expects Scotland’s Oil’. The McCrone report was only released The oil campaign consolidated a shift to the after a prolonged campaign by a member of left that anchored the party on the centre- SNP parliamentary staff and it has achieved left of the political spectrum. Oil-fuelled totemic significance in some sections of the projections of social spending and industrial independence movement. For instance, the investment were developed by Stephen pro-independence daily newspaper, The Maxwell, the party’s press spokesperson National, has republished it twice in recent and the leading intellectual of the left-wing years. In 2020, its editor explained why it internal party faction, the ’79 Group. In the mattered in the contemporary constitutional ’79 Group’s view, working-class Labour vot- debate: ‘We know that the climate crisis has ers needed to be won over to independence, sharpened minds on the use and extraction and oil arguments were central to present- of fossil fuels—but that misses the point. ing the case that could convince them to This could have been any resource—dia- back the SNP. Its younger members monds, renewables, whatever. It’s about the included the future First Minister, Alex Sal- principle that the people of Scotland were mond, his Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAs- lied to and denied the chance to choose their kill, and future Environment Secretary, own future.’10 Pro-independence economists Rosanna Cunningham. made significant revisions to the Govern- ment Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) reports that measure Scotland’s fiscal The Scottish renewables balance vis-a-vis the UK around the same experience time, specifically through the reallocation of oil and gas revenues. The inclusion of oil As an oil economist at the Royal Bank of revenues confirmed McCrone’s expectation Scotland during the early 1980s, Salmond of budget surpluses in the 1980s, when Scot- was well acquainted with the workings of land was experiencing the worst ravages of the North Sea. He came to see the sector as Thatcherism. Renewables presented an offering great potential for the growth of opportunity for Salmond’s government to Scottish business through the transfer of prove his long-held contention that Scottish financial knowhow. The SNP’s 2007 mani- energy resources would be better governed festo was shorn of ’79 Group radicalism, but within Scotland. Divergence from UK retained an emphasis on the British state’s nuclear policy helped to create space for mismanagement of resources and energy renewables in Scotland’s energy mix by policy. Nationalists rejected New Labour’s reducing future fuel competition. Unlike oil embrace of nuclear power. Scotland’s status or nuclear, renewable energy is largely reli- as a future nuclear-free zone has ceased to ant on comparatively recent technology that be contentious, but was highly controversial was developed during the devolution era. at the time. Magnus Linklater, a Times com- The newly rebranded ‘Scottish Government’ mentator, predicted that Scotland would grasped the opportunity to assert its author- struggle to keep the lights on in 2020 and ity by delivering good governance and forg- wind up in the ‘morally bankrupt’ position 9 ing a new energy agenda. of depending on English nuclear stations.

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© 2021 The Authors. The Political Quarterly published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Political Quarterly, Vol. 92, No. 1 Political Quarterly Publishing Co (PQPC) By working with other small European more sustainable case for an egalitarian inde- nations and regions, the Scottish Govern- pendent Scotland during the 2010s. Fossil ment became one of several ‘sub-state pio- fuels in the North Sea remained a dominant neers’. Salmond’s administration built a feature of the referendum though. The tenor picture of competency and grounded ambi- of the Growth Commission was a response tion, as well as an international profile. In to the fragilities in pro-independence eco- 2014, an academic study concluded that ‘eco- nomic perspectives which were revealed by nomic motivations are certainly more in evi- the oil price downturn that came soon after dence than “green” ambitions in the Scottish the referendum, as well as to the perception case’.11 A key example was the Scottish gov- that an over-reliance on oil was a weakness ernment’s report, Reindustrialising Scotland for in the Yes campaign. Covid-19 and oil mar- the 21st Century, which was published in ket instability have brought further disloca- 2014 during the run-up to the independence tion, with a recent survey revealing that over referendum. Salmond underlined British fail- 40 per cent of offshore workers were laid off ure in the foreword through a reference to or furloughed during 2020. The overwhelm- ‘decades of neglect by Westminster govern- ing majority of participants indicated they ments which has led us lagging behind other were ready and willing to transition to nations’. The Scottish Government was con- another sector of the economy.15 Similarly, trastingly pursuing ‘a national mission’ in research conducted among the 700 workers which ‘offshore renewables and advanced recently made redundant from Rolls Royce’s engineering’ had a key role to play by con- aeroengine factory in Inchinnan also con- tributing to 100,000 new manufacturing jobs cluded that ‘a significant minority reported and a 50 per cent increase in exports.12 Dur- that they would like to work in the renew- ing the late 2010s, low carbon sources able energy sector, specifically wind tur- accounted for up to 90 per cent of Scottish bines’.16 electricity consumption, leaving the Scottish Rather than offering employment for government potentially on track to meet its newly unemployed skilled engineers, renew- target of achieving 100 per cent by 2020.13 ables are currently contributing to their tra- Renewables have enjoyed a meteoric rise. In vails. Events at BiFab are not isolated: they 2018, Scotland still relied on aging nuclear come alongside the idling of the fabrication power stations for over quarter of its electric- yard at Machrihanish near Campbelltown, ity, but renewables accounted for over half, which is the UK’s only wind tower manufac- around 56 per cent of generation, which was turing facility. Its South Korean owners, CS double the rate of England and Wales. When Wind, are presently embroiled in a court Alex Salmond became First Minister, renew- case as they attempt to remove equipment ables only produced 16 per cent of electricity from Scotland. The mothballing of this generation and wind was responsible for just strategic site contributed to the broader stag- over 5 per cent. By 2018, wind farms nation of low carbon energy employment in accounted for nearly 40 per cent of Scottish Scotland. Between 2014 and 2018, employ- electricity generation, making them the sin- ment actually fell from 23,400 to 23,100 gle largest energy source.14 workers. During 2017–18 alone, the volume Wind turbines featured on the hopeful of direct offshore wind capacity increased imagery produced by supporters of the ‘Yes’ around three times over, but this enlarge- movement during the 2014 Scottish indepen- ment was accompanied by a small contrac- dence referendum campaign. Perhaps most tion in job numbers. The Scottish memorably, the left-wing ‘Radical Indepen- Government had previously projected that dence Campaign’ launch event publicity pos- 28,000 workers would be employed in off- ter featured almost sentient looking wind shore wind alone by 2020. Offshore wind turbines standing above a large demonstra- provides comparatively few jobs in contrast tion. The phrase ‘Another Scotland is Possi- to offshore oil, with employment largely ble’ shares the top right corner of the poster restricted to periodic maintenance.17 There is with a turbine blade. Just as oil had fuelled not much work to be gained from harnessing the nationalist economic vision of the 1970s, Scotland’s premier renewable resource, since so renewable energy powered a greener, unlike the black gold in the North Sea, the

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The Political Quarterly, Vol. 92, No. 1 © 2021 The Authors. The Political Quarterly published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Political Quarterly Publishing Co (PQPC) wind that now powers Scottish homes does local politicians are looking towards prospec- not currently generate money for the public tive Chinese owners to plug the gap. At purse either. Despite electricity price rises, BiFab, public policy is reinforcing the effects significant public subsidies are important to of remote management by multinationals incentivising the marked growth of renew- with little prior interest in Scotland that has ables electricity generation. been a concern to Scottish economists for Public ownership is central to the new decades. CS Wind’s stripping of their Camp- wind farms springing up off the coast of belltown facility demonstrates that these Scotland. A recent report by the Scottish effects are also being felt elsewhere in the Trades Union Congress (STUC) estimates renewables manufacturing sector. that half of the wind turbines in Britain are There are plausible solutions to the stalling owned by foreign national governments. of renewables manufacturing, but they These trends are exemplified by the French would require a significant change in the state company EDF which owns the new Scottish Government’s approach to energy Neart na Gaoithe (NNG) wind farm, just policy. The Scottish Government could make miles from BiFab’s Fife yards. As mentioned more use of the power it has over natural above, BiFab’s administration was triggered resource licencing and the provision of subsi- when the Scottish and UK governments dies by making these conditional on achiev- refused to underwrite a contract for jackets ing supply chain benefits, and more for just 8 of NNG’s 54 turbines. Another 40 favourable outcomes could be achieved by per cent of British wind farms are owned by bargaining for developmental objectives. UK multinationals headquartered outside the and Scottish ministers alike insist that EU UK. These include Scottish Power which— state aid rules prevent further public sup- despite the name—is owned by the Spanish port, but this does not tally with the experi- company, Iberdrola. Only 7 per cent of wind ence in several other European countries or turbines in Britain are owned by UK-based exceptions offered to achieve environmental companies, including SSE, which is head- benefits. European Union member states quartered in Perth. Renewables manufactur- have implemented more active policies, ing has developed within this multinational including local content requirements, that structure. Sapiem, an Italian global energy could be used to oblige wind farm owners giant, is responsible for building the wind to use Scottish yards. Bolder options still turbines for the NNG wind farm, with BiFab include considering the ownership and con- left competing for subcontracts. trol of important strategic resources. Policies The cutthroat environment of international to mandate or incentivise joint ventures—as supply chains was instrumental to the BiFab Norway has pioneered—could facilitate tech- crisis of 2017. Occupying workers and union nology transfer and knowhow to Scotland. officials blamed the firm’s troubles on multi- The Scottish Government could also join the national contractors. At a Holyrood rally governments that own wind farms in the during November 2017, they claimed that North Sea. Moves towards the formation of contractors for large offshore wind farms a Scottish publicly owned electricity com- had delayed payments to a viable business. pany could be extended to generation rather Unions used the strategic importance that than being confined to sales. There are alter- renewables had been invested with over the native sites to BiFab for renewables manu- previous decade to their advantage. Appren- facturing in Scotland. Recent moves toward tices marched at the front of the demonstra- the construction of the UK’s largest fabrica- tion in Scotland’s capital, and young tion at plant at Nigg, complete with a steel children joined their fathers and mothers on rolling mill for manufacturing towers and the short journey from Fife to Edinburgh, jackets, holds out further hope for a green symbolising the future that was being jeop- industrial revolution—or at least develop- ardised. They were momentarily successful, ment.18 Yet, the lack of coordination in the yet the outcome—a transfer of BiFab’s own- sector leaves workers precarious and wastes ership to a Canadian firm—also heightened potential. There is certainly an argument that the problems facing Scottish renewables. In a small country in a global industry would the latest scramble to rescue the Fife yards, benefit from concentration on a single

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© 2021 The Authors. The Political Quarterly published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Political Quarterly, Vol. 92, No. 1 Political Quarterly Publishing Co (PQPC) facility, or a few linked sites, but achieving less inclination towards using state aid rules that sort of sustained focus would require as a justification for inaction. Developments more decisive direction from government. in Fife and on Lewis are part of a widercon- text. They raise questions about willingness to develop a strategic approach to electricity Conclusion generation that uses government power, sub- During the earlier years of her period as sidies and Scottish renewable resources in First Minster, Nicola Sturgeon made the case order to bargain effectively with the multina- for ‘Rhine capitalism’ which ‘instilled a tionals who dominate renewables generation strong sense of partnership between work- and manufacturing. ers, trade unions, businesses and public sec- tor. As a result, the German economy has Ewan Gibbs is Lecturer in Global Inequalities been characterised by innovation, high pro- at the University of Glasgow ductivity and strong exports.’19 When Glas- gow hosts the international climate summit, COP26, during 2021, Scotland’s renewables Notes achievements will be centre stage. Yet, 1 D. Fraser, ‘What future for Scotland’s heavy despite her earlier rhetoric, under Sturgeon, engineering yards?’, BBC News, 4 December Salmond’s earlier privileging of the economic 2020; https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla nd-55184960 (accessed 16 January 2021). opportunities in renewables has perhaps 2 ‘ ’ been displaced by a growing emphasis on BiFab working group , statement from the ’ Scottish and UK governments, 24 November Scotland s role as a global citizen in its 2020; https://www.gov.scot/news/bifab-work approaching carbon-free electricity genera- ing-group/ (accessed 16 January 2021). tion. This is a welcome perspective in terms 3 ‘Boris Johnson: wind farms could power every of answering the challenge of climate home by 2030’, BBC News, 6 October 2020; change, but it is accompanied by much less https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics- certainty when it comes to setting a date for 54421489 (accessed 16 January 2021). running down oil production or finding 4 P. Anderson, ‘The origins of the present crisis’, New Left Review, vol. 23, no. 1, 1964, pp. 26–53. alternative niches for the workers affected by 5 displacement from carbon-intensive indus- T. Nairn, The Break-Up of Britain: Crisis and Neo- tries. An older nationalist critique of the Bri- Nationalism, London, NLR Books, 1977, at p. ’ 57. tish state s oil failures inspired the Scottish 6 ’ ’ C. Harvie, Fool s Gold: The Story of North Sea Government s promotion of renewables. It Oil, London, Penguin, 1994. also provides a powerful basis on which to 7 G. Wilson, SNP: The Turbulent Years, 1960– criticise Scotland’s renewables experience. 1990: A History of the Scottish National Party, Like oil beforehand, renewables are being Stirling, Scots Independent, 2009, at pp. 85–6. harnessed to great effect in Scotland, espe- 8 Sustainable Growth Commission, Scotland—the cially in its waters. Once again, the failure of New Case for Optimism: A Strategy for Inter-Gen- policymakers to ensure domestic benefit erational Economic Renaissance, report, 2018, at from these resources, and for Scottish energy p. 43; https://www.sustainablegrowthcommis sources to serve the requirements of former sion.scot/report (accessed 16 January 2021). 9 M. Linklater, ‘Will the last person in Scotland industrial communities, remains a source of in 2020 turn out the light?’, Times, 25 May contention. The failures of the British state 2007, p. 23. that were pathologised by Nairn and Ander- 10 C. Baird ‘The National to publish secret son appear less specifically bound up with McCrone report again’, The National, 19 Febru- its aristocratic or pre-modern culture, and ary 2020; https://www.thenational.scot/news/ the successes achieved in Norway seem 18244694.national-publish-secret-mccrone-oil-re more exceptional. Achieving Scottish move- port/ (accessed 16 January 2021). 11 ‘ ment in either a Norwegian or Rhinish direc- N. McEwen and E. Bomberg, Sub-state climate pioneers: the case of Scotland’, Regional and Fed- tion requires the will to pursue a politics of – national sovereignty and developmentalism. eral Studies, vol. 24, no. 1, 2014, pp. 63 85, at p. 80. That could start with a more assertive 12 Scottish Government, Reindustrialising Scotland approach to renewables manufacturing, and for the 21st Century: A Sustainable Industrial

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The Political Quarterly, Vol. 92, No. 1 © 2021 The Authors. The Political Quarterly published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Political Quarterly Publishing Co (PQPC) Strategy for a Modern, Independent Nation, 2014), re-employment’, 22 October 2020; https://unite at pp. ii–iii; https://www.centreonconstitutiona theunion.org/news-events/news/2020/octobe lchange.ac.uk/sites/default/files/migrated/ne r/new-research-finds-vast-majority-of-rolls- ws/00453082.pdf (accessed 16 January 2021). royce-inchinnan-workers-have-not-found-re- 13 ‘Share of renewable energy production hits employment-as-unite-demands-government-sup record high in Scotland’, Energy Voice,27 port/ (accessed 16 January 2021). March 2020; https://www.energyvoice.com/re 17 Scottish Trades Union Congress, Scotland’s newables-energy-transition/231073/share-of-re Renewable Jobs Crisis and Covid19: An STUC newable-energy-production-hits-record-high-in- Report, 2020, at pp. 2–3; http://www.stuc.org. scotland/ (accessed 16 January 2021). uk/files/Policy/Research-papers/Renewable_ 14 Scottish Government, ‘Proportion of electricity Jobs_Crisis_Covid-19.pdf (accessed 16 January generation by fuel’, Scottish Energy Statistics 2021). Hub, 2019; https://scotland.shinyapps.io/Ene 18 D. V. Snieckus, ‘UK’s largest offshore wind fab- rgy/?Section=RenLowCarbon&Subsection=Re rication plant planned in Scotland’, Recharge nElec&Chart=ElecGen (accessed 16 January News, 16 October 2020; https://www.recharge 2021). news.com/wind/uks-largest-offshore-wind-fab 15 Friends of the Earth Scotland, Offshore: Oil and rication-plant-planned-in-scotland/2-1-894856 Gas Workers’ Views on Industry Conditions and (accessed 16 January 2021). the Energy Transition, 29 September 2020, at p. 19 N. Sturgeon, ‘Economy and equality. Bedfel- 6; https://foe.scot/resource/offshore-oil-and-ga lows or competing outcomes?’, speech at World s-workers-views/ (accessed 16 January 2021). Bank, 10 June 2015. 16 Unite, ‘New research finds vast majority of Rolls Royce Inchinnan workers have not found

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© 2021 The Authors. The Political Quarterly published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Political Quarterly, Vol. 92, No. 1 Political Quarterly Publishing Co (PQPC)